Muirhead and Smith on brink of Euro play-offs

Women in second, men lie third

Pitlochry curling ace Eve Muirhead edged closer to a place in the medal play-offs after her side’s fifth straight win at the European Championships in Switzerland, yesterday.

The Perthshire curler and her team scored eight points for the third game in a row as they defeated Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz 8-3.

The Scots were three stones up at the halfway stage, and although Yildiz closed the gap to one, Muirhead counted twos at both the eighth and ninth ends to clinch victory.

The victory gave the Scots a share of second place in the standings along with hosts Switzerland, who like Team Muirhead have been chosen as Olympic representatives in PyeongChang next year.

Muirhead said: “They were a bit of an unknown quantity given we hadn’t played them before and it is fair to say they are a good technical team who have a lot of potential in the game.

“It is great see more emerging nations coming into the sport and I am sure they will have a good future.

“We played it very simple and nailed the key shots and it was a solid and clinical performance from the team, making all the draws and nose hits.”

The Courier columnist plays Czech Anna Kubeskova and the unbeaten Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni today.

Meanwhile Perth’s Kyle Smith is also still on course to reach the knockout stages despite yesterday’s 5-4 loss to Sweden’s defending champion Niklas Edin.

In a cagey encounter, it was all-square until the seventh end where Edin made a crucial breakthrough and held on for the win.

Smith said: “We then treated the extra end like a last end and my final draw was swept really well by the boys, so I was delighted to win and it was a great collective effort.”

Smith’s men, who share third place in the standings with Norway, now face hosts Switzerland, who are undefeated in the tournament and have already qualified for the play-offs.